Restaurant Schwarzer Hahn: Stefan Neugebauer gently brings a breath of fresh air to a traditional restaurant

Fate sometimes shows us the way to go. If it had not been for some Japanese vineyard leaseholders in Deidesheim in the Palatinate, Stefan Neugebauer would probably never have learnt so much about Japanese ingredients, which he has made the main anchor point in his most recent style of cuisine. Like Christian Bau but more classically oriented, Neugebauer seems to effortlessly integrate Japanese accents into traditional haute cuisine. From the Japanese he derives gems such as kombu seaweed, umeboshi plums and amanatsu, a Japanese citrus fruit halfway between a yuzu and a mandarin.

Umeboshi plums are used for example in his suckling pork / dashi barley / gravy juices / yuzu kosho, in which Neugebauer roasts the loin, cooks the pork belly sous-vide and marinates the leg meat with miso, then combines them with the fermented umeboshi, salty/sour/hot yuzu kosho paste, barley with red dashi (traditional Japanese fish sauce), stuffed cabbage and the meat juices, which serve as a solid foundation. Every mouthful is an exciting interaction between the various parts of the pork and the different seasonings – this is uncharted gastronomic territory. Another Neugebauer speciality is his veal heartcooked at a low temperature in ponzu sauce, which takes on an octopus-like texture and a certain piquancy, triggering a fascinating new taste sensation with the traditional bean and mint duality in combination with a sesame paste.